The New York convention in action

The 1958 New York Convention in Action provides an in-depth objective
account of the Convention in terms of textual analysis and judicial practice.
The 1958 New York Convention itself has been called the most effective
instance of international legislation in the entire history of commercial law.
However, the concise text of the Convention leaves open a host of significant
and complex questions, which have been answered in different ways: however, as
difficult cases arise and demand solutions, inconsistent outcomes can be
generated.

By drawing on the Convention’s drafting history in great detail, this book
presents a coherent account of how the most recurring interrogations about the
text are reflected (or not) in judicial practice. The author has studied more
than 1,700 decisions rendered under the Convention since its inception in 1958
in order to provide a succinct selection of landmark cases per article.

What’s in this book

This book exposes the difficulties of the Convention while simultaneously
exploring potential solutions. It examines each substantive article of the New
York Convention in accordance with the following outline:

• the text and its issues;
  
• original intent;
  
• the prism of the rules of interpretation of the Vienna Convention;
  
• judicial outcomes; and
  
• appraisal.
  

The book is a comprehensive treatise on the entire Convention in action from
the date of its conclusion in 1958 to the present date. The Convention is
discussed on the basis of the two most fundamental authoritative sources: its
drafting history and its judicial application. The entire drafting history and
documents – from before, during and immediately after the conclusion of the
Convention – are analyzed in order to provide the reader with a useful
analysis of the drafters’ intent and historical background necessary for
proper interpretation of the Convention.

Based on the drafting history, a special Index regrouping the drafting history
per Article of the Convention has been created by the author. This is the
first time that such an Index has been made available. The book includes
chapters focusing on the framework and Resolutions of the Convention and on
the Convention being used as an instrument of international law.

How this will help you

The 1958 New York Convention in Action, with its intense investigation
of the complex reality underlying contracting States’ commitment in principle
and judicial application, provides a clear conceptual framework to the reader
to gain an understanding on the Convention, that will help avoid outcomes at
odds with the purposes of this important instrument. Lawyers and judges will
rely on this book not only to situate the Convention in national legal orders
where it is intended to produce an effect, but also to discover practical ways
to respond to distinct questions of application. In short, this book brings
the text of the Convention to the days of modern trade by revisiting the
drafting history of the articles and thereby brings the drafters' intent back
to the surface.